The Insider's Guide for New Seattleites

Unpacking the myths and truths—politics, weather, traffic, food, legal pot—of Seattle for newcomers and longtimers alike. Plus, tales of arrival from an Amazon employee, an Ethiopian refugee, and Sasha Mehdi, age one.

Confession: We love new Seattleites. Oh, we get it. Seattle is on steroids, morphing into something unrecognizable to longtimers. This is, after all, among the three fastest-growing large cities in the U.S., with the population increasing at a clip of 2.2 percent a year. It’s an expansion observed via the cranes that dot the skyline—11 at last count—and the disappearance of beloved icons (RIP Harvard Exit theater), but also in the shifting socioeconomic landscape: Affordable housing has never been harder to obtain, and that needs to change. But just as there’s a right way for a city to grow, there’s also a right way to embrace that city. We like newbies—most of us on staff, in fact, moved here within the last decade, and all of us still look at this place with a newcomer’s sense of wonder. The following pages represent that curiosity. Because whether you moved here last week or you’ve been here for ages, with a city changing as rapidly as Seattle, we could all use a primer on the basics.